At the beginning of the year, a dear brother and good friend, whom I met in New
York, invited me to his wedding which was going to be in Hong Kong. What better
excuse to go to visit "China" than going for a wedding? This also made the
decision of where to go on vacation this year quite easy to figure out. So we
booked a hotel and the 12 hour flights, with a layover in Zurich, because we
missed it/because it was the cheapest flight.

First impression after we got there: it's hot. Like really, really, really hot.
And humid. Buckets of water dripping from you in one minute after you step
outside. Second impression: at 11 PM it's not much better. The tem­per­a­ture drops
from 32 degrees to 28 degrees, but the humidity doesn't really change. Because
of this heat, we actually didn't take too many pictures, because who wants to
stop to take pictures when you are running from one place with AC to another?

A really cool thing about Hong Kong is that while it's a Chinese city
(tech­ni­cal­ly a Special Ad­min­is­tra­tive Region, with some degree of in­de­pen­dence),
it's very easy to get by just by knowing English. Public transport has
absolutely every sign in Latin letters as well, many people speak English
(except the occasional taxi driver or waiter). In this way you can eat all the
really yummy Chinese food, without having com­mu­ni­ca­tion problems, although I
have to admit, a couple of times I don't know what I ate. But it was still
really good (though my wife disagrees).

AC's, AC's everywhere

On the first night, we went to Jamie's Place, so that we have a gentler start to
our stay in Hong Kong (and also, my wife is a big fan of his). We walked around
a bit in the Causeway Bay area and I noticed that buildings are covered in a
ridiculous amount of AC units.

The next day we met with my friend Lok Ka and his fiancee. They showed us the
"local" food experience, by taking us to a restaurant situated in what was
a former factory in Kowloon.

The queue for the peak tram

In the evening we went up Victoria Peak with the Peak Tram. While the queues
looked incredibly long, they moved quite fast. There, at the top of Hong Kong
island, you could feel a bit of a breeze, making it a bit more com­fort­able.

Wednesday was beach day. We went south, to Stanley Beach and to the nearby
shopping complex, Stanley Market. Conclusion: the Pacific is really pacific
(calm). We went there by bus. It was a terrifying experience. The drivers there
are crazy. They go on winding roads, cutting corners and going really fast. And
in the city, they regularly go between lanes for extended periods of time. We
preferred the tram, it was much more chill. And the top level had open windows,
so you could feel the wind blowing in your face.

After that, we took Lok Ka's rec­om­men­da­tion and went to Yum Cha, a fusion dim
sum place, where they make dim sum's shaped like little piggies. And they had
some delicious soup. And some more stuff that I'm not sure what it was. But it
was really good.

The rest of the day was spent doing tourisy things, such as going on the Ferris
Wheel and taking the Hong Kong ferry to Kowloon, walking around some parks
there and, most important, shopping in the Temple Street Night Market, where we
bought some overpriced, but fancy looking chopsticks (and some other stuff).

Temple Street Night Market

On Friday we met up with several friends, whom I had also met in New York. We
had more delicious Chinese food (except the pork knuckles). Turns out fried
octopus is a really good snack. We also went to the History Museum, where there
was a special exhibition on the Assyrian, Babylonian and Achemenid (Medo-persian)
empires, focusing on luxury in that time. It turns out that cheap knock-offs
existed even back then. The most expensive pots and jugs were made out of
various kinds of metals, which sometimes needed some nits to hold different
plates together. The clay jugs were much cheaper and could be made out of one
piece, without needing any nits, but people still include something looking like
nits on them, just so they would look more expensive.

To finish the night, we went up Sky 101, which is the tallest building in
Hong Kong and we enjoyed the vistas from there. Un­for­tu­nate­ly, it's an enclosed
space at the top, so you can't take good pictures :(

Saturday was the wedding ceremony. More good food basically. (Notice a pattern?)
But in between the church service and dinner there were several hours, during
which my wife wanted to eat something that is more familiar... like KFC. Hong
Kong seems to be full of KFCs, so we went into one and we were horribly
dis­s­a­point­ed. No french fries No Glenn Garlic Sauce!! No crispy strips!!! What
is this???

On Sunday, I woke up with a horribly sore throat. This put a bit of a damper on
the last two days of our time there, but at least I started enjoying the fact
that it was really nice and warm outside.

On Monday we went shopping. Among other places to... IKEA. Because it's easier
to go there to IKEA than to visit the only one in Romania, which is in
Bucharest. And then we began the long flight back home.

My conclusion after my first trip to East Asia: really good food, but I wouldn't
go again during the hot season. So my other Chinese friends, please plan your
weddings during the more normal weather, if you want us to attend as well!

Flamingos, my wife's favorite birds, in Kowloon Park

P.S. I noticed that while Google Maps knows about the
metro stations and the position of the exits, it doesn't really know how to use
the exits and always guides you to the same one. Which happens to be the one
that was the furthest away from our hotel.